Melchior FRANZ wrote: > The bleriot is very nice, much nicer than the wright. But its FDM > is a bit ... ummm ... well, the engine is quite powerful and the > aircraft allows some aerobatics, which the real one probably didn't ;-) >
Melchior, that is understatement! When I was flying for Des Moines Flying Service in 1968, I got to watch two very good pilots try and fly a copy of the bleriot. Even with a modern engine similar to a j3 engine, the cruise speed was only a few mph above the stall speed. Both pilots stalled the bleriot at about 10 feet off the ground shortly after take off. Both were shaken after the hard unplanned landings that followed the stalls. Makes one really appreciate the channel crossing accomplishment. The same pair owned a copy of the Curtis-Wright pusher with a real gnome rotary (stationary crank with rotating case and cylinders). That flew quite well and was very maneuverable although the rotary caused a lot of precession force with maneuvers. It had ailerons halfway between the two wings, a conventional vertical fin and rudder and a conventional horizontal stabilizer and elevator and even tricycle gear. Perhaps someone will add a model of this AC to FlightGear. -Dave Perry ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
